Today we held the IFAD press
conference at the Global Environment Facility’s (GEF’s) Fifth Assembly in
Cancun to launch the IFAD-GEF Advantage Report: Partnering for a
Sustainable World.

With the President of Mexico,
Enrique Peña Nieto, in the building there was strong competition for media
attention.

But after
the President opened the GEF Assembly this morning the Mexican media eventually
made their way across the conference centre to our press event.

The report
makes the case that higher yields and incomes, healthy ecosystems, and
empowered communities are among the benefits for small farmers in developing
countries from projects co-sponsored by IFAD and the GEF.

IFAD and GEF
began their partnership in 2001, working together with rural communities
worldwide on poverty reduction and environmental protection.

“The
IFAD-GEF partnership creates important and lasting environmental and
socioeconomic benefits,” said Elwyn Grainger-Jones, Director of IFAD’s
Environment and Climate Division. “These include gains in agricultural
production, household income and education, as well as improved forest, land
and water resources in rural communities."

“This report shows that there
is a clear IFAD-GEF Advantage: when we work together, natural resources and
ecosystems are protected, and people’s lives improve,” said Sheila Mwanundu,
Senior Technical Advisor for Environment at IFAD.

Journalists were keen to
understand the work that IFAD is doing with local communities in Mexico.

Juan De Dios Mattos, IFAD’s
Regional Environment and Climate Expert for Latin America explained IFAD’s
work on reforestation with indigenous communities in the southern states of
Mexico.

Working with the Mexican
Forestry Service (CONAFOR) more than 100 initiatives have taken off so far
ranging in focus from agroforestry to tree surgeries to clean technologies such
as cooking stoves.